Travellers among Mountains: the Six Masters of the Early Qing

Yesterday, I commemorated the three-hundredth anniversary of the death of one of the Six Masters of the early Qing period in China: Wú Lì, promising today to show the work of the other five.

Wáng Shímǐn 王時敏 王时敏 (1592-1680) was one of Wú Lì’s Masters, and the oldest of the six. He originally worked as a government official, but fell ill in 1630 during a visit to Nanking. He then devoted himself full-time to his art. His grandson was Wáng Yuánqí, another of the Six Masters.

In 1674, Wáng Huī painted an album of twelve paintings for his Master Wáng Shímǐn, who three years later responded in his own album, which included this painting. By this time, Wáng Shímǐn had grown old, and his ageing eyesight led to a broader style. Since then, individual leaves from those two albums, by Master and pupil, have become lost, and a single composite was created, in which there are ten surviving paintings by Wáng Huī, and two by Wáng Shímǐn.

Wáng Huī’s Dream Journey to the Mountains and Rivers is one of his later paintings, from 1702.

Yun Shouping 惲壽平 (1633–1690) was originally a landscape painter, but when he saw the art of Wáng Huī, he felt that his paintings could only be second best to those. He then changed direction, and became one of the great flower painters of China. He founded the Ch’ang-chou school of painting.

Yun Shouping’s later Sunset Along the Floral Embankment from 1671 shows a compromise between the floral and landscape.

Wáng Yuánqí 王原祁 (1642–1715) was taught to paint by his grandfather, Wáng Shímǐn. He became a court official to the Qing Emperor Kangxi, whose responsibilities included curation of the imperial collection.

Two details (above and below) from Wáng Yuánqí’s long handscroll of Free Spirits Among Streams and Mountains, painted in 1684, show an immature style influenced strongly by his Master Wáng Shímǐn and Huang Gongwang.

Wáng Yuánqí’s The Fuchun Mountains from 1699 is more typical of his mature style, and strongly influenced by Huang Gongwang’s great handscroll of Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains of 1350.

I hope that this quick dip into paintings from the early Qing dynasty has provided better context for the previous article on Wú Lì, and perhaps encouraged you to look afresh at these neglected artists.